The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics’ subcommittee on privacy, confidentiality, and security held a hearing June 16 to determine how HHS can improve its guidance on the HIPAA minimum necessary standard. The minimum necessary standard requires covered entities (CE) to use, request, and disclose only the minimum amount of protected health information (PHI) necessary for a given transaction. CEs cannot use, request, or disclose an individual’s entire medical record unless it can justify that the whole record is reasonably needed for a specific purpose.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) recovered more than $2.77 billion in civil monetary penalties (CMP) during the first half of the year, according to the office’s Semiannual Report to Congress, released May 31. The OIG expects that figure to continue to rise through the second half of the year.

A chain of health clinics in New Mexico closed after filing for bankruptcy and left patients without access to their medical records, KRQE News 13 reported.

Atrinea Health operated urgent care and family practice clinics in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Santa Fe, Los Lunas, and Ruidoso. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and in March a federal judge ordered the company to shut down all its clinics and sell its assets.

A patient advocate was appointed by the court to coordinate patients’ transition to other clinics and physicians. However, many patients said they have not received their medical records. Their new physicians have had to reorder tests that were recently performed by Atrinea Health clinics and complete new exams to document pre-existing conditions. In some cases, patients were left without access to prescriptions. Other former Atrinea Health patients reported that they received little or no advance warning that the clinics were closing and that it’s difficult to find physicians who are accepting new patients.

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released a new FAQ in May clarifying the fees an organization may charge for copies of an individual’s PHI.

Earlier this year, OCR released a series of documents providing guidance and clarification on 45 CFR § 164.524, Individuals’ Right Under HIPAA to Access Their Health Information. This information included guidance on how to calculate actual and average costs for requests for electronic copies of PHI, and stated that organizations may choose to charge a flat rate of $6.50 for this service. The wording in the documents caused confusion and some organizations may have been led to believe that $6.50 was the maximum amount they were allowed to charge for copies of PHI.

*MAGNET™, MAGNET RECOGNITION PROGRAM®, and ANCC MAGNET RECOGNITION® are trademarks of the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). The products and services of HCPro are neither sponsored nor endorsed by the ANCC. The acronym "MRP" is not a trademark of HCPro or its parent company.